As anti-police demonstrations continued this week in Ferguson, Mo., following the release of a Justice Department report detailing a probe into the local police department, one protester uploaded a controversial video depicting a man – presumably him – tearing an American flag. Scroll down to view the video clip.

The post went up shortly after news broke that a suspect was in custody for a shooting that left two Ferguson cops injured amid the ongoing civil unrest in the St. Louis suburb. Regardless of the motivation behind his act, numerous Twitter users trashed the user – identified only as Search4Swag – for destroying the national symbol.

His video received dozens of replies, many of which echoed one commenter’s assertion that he committed the act “[o]nly because the flag represents [his] f—king right to do it!”

Another user called the protester a coward, asserting that he is destroying the “symbol of the nation who’s [sic] men died giving him that right to free speech.”

Others grudgingly acknowledged that the First Amendment exists to protect such controversial expression.

“I defend the a—hole’s right to desecrate the flag,” one user wrote, concluding with the hashtag “#freespeech.”

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For some more jaded onlookers, however, the act was uninspired – and uninspiring.

“Ooh, how cutting edge,” one commenter wrote. “Never seen that before! Snore”

Of course, the uploader did attract a response from a few sympathetic souls, including one who claimed the flag “represents a nation that systematically oppresses anyone that isn’t a straight, white male.”

These comments were far outnumbered by those who sided with one veteran who had this to say to the protester:

Overpriviledged [sic] petulant, disrespectful garbage. I have a flag in my front yard. Want to try and tear it? Come on over.